Page 6 of On A Rift’s Edge (Riftworld #2)
N otwithstanding Kaveh’s courteous offer to let him stay in the monstertown, Lyall decided to set up his base at a Tucson motel.
It was neutral territory, not far from the ranch, and he had little difficulty blending in with humans as long he didn’t have to engage in long and annoying conversations.
He didn’t have a cyberbug to hack his way into human tech like Remi, but during his long indenture to Arimanius he had set up a human ID linked to a secret bank account. That worked well enough for check-in.
After casting several protective sigils around his room, he left the motel dressed in jeans and a tee shirt he had borrowed from José, with his living leathers dormant inside his fang necklace.
Kaveh had wanted to discuss the events of today earlier, but the tumultuous aftermath of the hybrid portal opening up hadn’t made it easy.
They had agreed to meet at a coffee shop in the city after Kaveh personally escorted Kat back to the ranch.
The young human had been frantic about his family’s reaction to the livestream and had rushed off before Lyall could build up enough courage to talk to him.
Lyall should have been the one to protect Kat against any threats, but explaining why to Kaveh, much less Kat, hadn’t been possible in all the confusion.
Plus, Lyall was dreading that conversation.
He arrived at the meeting spot a few minutes later. It was in a pleasant Tucson neighborhood, and the cooler air inside was a welcome respite from the outside heat.
By the time Lyall had purchased a quad shot—he had a taste for the Earth beverage, as long as it was black and full of caffeine—Kaveh had come through the door.
Lyall gave him a brief nod of recognition and sat at a table in the back. The drakone joined him a few minutes later, carrying his own coffee.
Dressed in no-nonsense jeans and a cowboy hat, Kaveh had nothing about him to suggest he was anything other than a good-looking human man in his early thirties.
One of Lyall’s clan’s greatest strengths was the ability to transform their huge canid bodies into shapes that made stalking and spying easier.
Lyall had the best human incarnation of his clan, but he had rarely met a Riftworld person of any species who could blend in as well as Kaveh could.
The veterinarian had lived for years in human society without anyone noticing.
That had changed when Kaveh had fought another drakone in a public duel over Remi.
The drakones weren’t supposed to be able to hold anything more than a modified version of their humanoid shape. Kaveh was an exception to that rule, but as the only known member of his clan on the planet, he was special in a lot of ways.
Prior to his visit to Moon Star Ranch, Lyall had thought that of the three main clans of the riftpeople humans called dragons, only two—air and water drakones—had been trapped on Earth during the Sundering.
The third clan, earth drakones known as the Azdaha, had been the most powerful and violent, hunting even other drakones with a deadly poisonous green fire known as summ.
No one had missed them or the threat they posed.
Finding out the mild-mannered veterinarian Remi had been sent to seduce was a killer Azdaha who had been adopted as a child by the Saguaro Rift air drakones had been an unpleasant surprise.
Having Kaveh turn out to be someone Lyall admired and trusted was an even bigger surprise. But a good one.
“Thanks for agreeing to meet me here.” Lyall stood and accepted the friendly handshake Kaveh offered before the two of them sat down across from one another. “I apologize again for trespassing on your territory without prior permission and for jumping on Kat.”
“You were trying to save him from a possible threat, so no apology is needed.” Kaveh took a gulp of his coffee. Although Lyall hadn’t known the man for long, he knew he didn’t like to lose his temper. “I shouldn’t have reacted so strongly to your arrival.”
“Well, I did show up right after a hellmouth opened and Zale attacked your human friend.” Lyall had to watch what he said, but the sheer fury he had felt when he had heard Kat cry out was fresh in his mind. “I’m happy to take care of Zale for you. Permanently.”
Kaveh held up a hand, but smile lines crinkled around his eyes. “A tempting offer, but Remi’s convinced me it’s better to have his cousin where we can keep an eye on him. The guardians are staying inside the town currently, and I’m sure they can handle any trouble he might try to cause.”
The guardians, who spent most of their time slumbering like statues in their lion-dog forms outside the monstertown, were members of an ancient and highly respected species known as komainu. They were nobody to fuck with.
“Who do they think created the hybrid hellmouth?” Lyall asked.
“They agreed with your suspicion the control object could be involved, and they’ve promised to look into it.” Kaveh sighed. “A full inquiry from them will take time. I’d like to hear more about your theory.”
The guardians not only resembled sculpture, they moved and made decisions at glacial speed.
Lyall had hoped he was wrong and the research on rift boundaries he had done over the last several months wouldn’t be needed.
If the komainu agreed the control object could have played a role, though, that told Lyall a lot.
“First I’d like to ask you if you’ve destroyed it.
” Lyall thought that would be too much to hope for.
The device Remi liked to describe as a giant glowing dildo was a biological construct used by the Saguaro Rift drakones to expand or contract the Riftworld territory they controlled.
Kaveh had been aware of its existence but hadn’t known it worked by cannibalism, consuming one of the phantoms trapped in the abandoned military base every time the rift boundary was altered.
Remi had been sent by his father Arimanius to Moon Star Ranch to steal the device, and had succeeded, after a fashion. Now he had a drakone lover to go along with it.
Kaveh gave a slight shake of his head, as if the subject was something he had agonized over.
“The control object is more complex than I expected. It’s a phantom fetus—and it isn’t.
Either way, it’s a sapient creature.” Kaveh stopped for moment, then corrected himself.
“I should say they are a sapient creature. Remi’s been able to use his psychic abilities to communicate with whomever is living inside the device.
Our best understanding is that they’re currently in fetal form, but that’s all we know.
You mentioned you’ve been trying to find out more in the past several months. I’d like to know what you found out.”
Lyall wanted to share information as well, but he and Kaveh were from enemy clans, and a fair exchange of information wasn’t an unreasonable request. “I’ll tell you all I know, with two conditions. First, I’d like to ask for your permission to speak to Remi alone.”
It might be old-fashioned, but if Lyall wanted to talk to a drakone’s Matchmaker-chosen mate in private, this was the proper way to do it.
The privacy wasn’t for Remi, though, it was for him.
Seeing Kat again had brought up all sorts of feelings Lyall had tried to squelch with little success.
He needed advice about Kat, and Remi was the only person he felt comfortable asking.
Kaveh smiled, and Lyall could see how Remi might have fallen for him even without the Matchmaker getting involved. “I’m sure Remi would love to catch up with his former bodyguard, but I’d advise you not tell him you asked for my blessing first. I’ll never hear the end of it.”
Lyall had wondered how his friend was handling his first serious relationship after years of seduce-and-run work for Arimanius. It sounded as if things were going well, which was welcome news. What he had learned about the control object, on the other hand, wasn’t encouraging.
“I’ve spent months traveling and researching the control object. Before that bizarre portal opened in my clan’s territory, I gave a full report to one of my alphas, and she had several thoughts on it.”
Kaveh drank down more coffee and nodded, his expression serious. “Would that be Alpha Gremory? She’s famous for her knowledge of Riftworld weaponry and technology.”
“Yes.” Lyall was surprised that a Saguaro Rift drakone knew his birth mother’s name and role in his clan, but he shouldn’t be.
Information about opponents was a weapon in and of itself.
“The conclusions she drew were similar to mine. The object contains a hybrid phantom who was created from the deaths and biological matter of murdered individuals from a variety of species. Phantoms can’t survive outside a riftland, but humans can.
Phantoms can’t create portals, but other species can.
Imagine a phantom who can travel anywhere on Earth, manipulate rift boundaries, and translocate itself by using earth, water, or air portals. ”
“Air portals as well?” Kaveh furrowed his brow, but before Lyall could spell it out, he came to the logical conclusion on his own. “Rhys gave the construct some of his own biomatter.”
Lyall gave a grim nod. Rhys, a member of Kaveh’s adopted clan, had been the mastermind behind altering the control object to suit his purposes. That meant whatever lived inside the glowing egg was technically part of Kaveh’s family.
Kaveh’s face darkened. “This is deeply disturbing. Rhys is in France now, but I doubt he’d be forthcoming with information even if he was here.
Xiang Jao’s first husband Tarasque and I are on speaking terms, though, and I can also reach out to the matriarch of the Witch City Rift drakone clan, Ceto.
I was already planning to ask for her assistance with a different matter. ”